After Sapa we ventured back to Hanoi then straight out again for a three day trip around Halong Bay, which is three hours west of Hanoi. It's an amazing landscape with enormous limestone outcrops jutting from the sea forming 1,969 islands and islets through which our jaded tourist tub weaved it's merry way. Despite it being an extremely touristy area with dozens of tour boats circling around the same spots it was a truly tranquil and peaceful few days.
We boarded our junk (not a junk in the truest sense of the word but it was probably soon to be junk!) and spent the afternoon sunning ourselves on the top deck enjoying the best weather we've had for ages.
We visited a couple of stunning caves, one of which on Cat Ba island, named Hospital Cave, was converted by the Viet Cong army into a hospital for the wounded during the American War and was designed to house up to 140 injured soldiers. It included a cinema and table tennis rooms and was completely undectable to the US Army from the air. The guy guiding us through the cave was a former Viet Cong nurse and was still incredibly patriotic and passionate about his time during the war and even gave us a song as an example of the activities they got up to pass the time whilst hiding out in the caves.
On our last day in Halong Bay we boarded a smaller boat which took us around some of the least accessible parts of the islands. We landed on a small island called Monkey Island (all those of the Amiga generation will know that I was hoping to act out the part of Guybrush Threepwood in my epic struggle against the evil zombie pirate LeChuck!) and spent the day sunning ourselves on the beach and I finally got my first swim in the sea!! On returning to the boat the skipper found that the tide had since gone out and we were grounded on a sand bank. Not wishing to be outdone (nor expose us to a night of monkey terror!) he ordered us to get off the boat and sit in the Kayaks attached to the boat in order to reduce the overall weight of his boat enough to get us off the sank bank. This culminated in the surreal and hirlarious sight of a dozen tourists sat in canoes attached to a boat which was eventually towed free from a sand bank with four monkeys sat looking on with astonished looks on their faces. Top marks to the captain, I'm glad he read his tide tables before setting out! I wish the monkeys had been in charge now!
a couple of monkeys
grem and teej go exploring
On our last day in Halong Bay we boarded a smaller boat which took us around some of the least accessible parts of the islands. We landed on a small island called Monkey Island (all those of the Amiga generation will know that I was hoping to act out the part of Guybrush Threepwood in my epic struggle against the evil zombie pirate LeChuck!) and spent the day sunning ourselves on the beach and I finally got my first swim in the sea!! On returning to the boat the skipper found that the tide had since gone out and we were grounded on a sand bank. Not wishing to be outdone (nor expose us to a night of monkey terror!) he ordered us to get off the boat and sit in the Kayaks attached to the boat in order to reduce the overall weight of his boat enough to get us off the sank bank. This culminated in the surreal and hirlarious sight of a dozen tourists sat in canoes attached to a boat which was eventually towed free from a sand bank with four monkeys sat looking on with astonished looks on their faces. Top marks to the captain, I'm glad he read his tide tables before setting out! I wish the monkeys had been in charge now!
After this maritime adventure we took a well deserved break from the sea and headed back to Hanoi where we jumped on another overnight train heading south for Hue!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home